Camtasia 8.0 Wants to Create a New Track for *every* Clip I Add?

The previous workflow was adding the clips end to end as they were shot then saved. Version 8 wants to stack each of the clips onto a new track? This makes no sense to me, is there a way to revert to adding the video clips to ONE track?

Not fixed that I know of. New tracks appear in seemingly random places in the timeline, as well. SOmetimes, they're way over to the far right, many minutes past the end of the previous track I recorded. Don't know that anyone sees this as a problem at TechSmith.

I find it quite strange how it seems to arbitrarily add tracks, even when there are open and available tracks below. I also can't use save and edit for the same reason, I have to save, import, add clip to timeline to avoid additional tracks, moving to the correct track, deleting the unwanted tracks, etc.

I agree, it does seem to add the clip at an arbitrary location on the timeline. Sometimes far off to the right like you mentioned, adding lots of blank space to the right of the timeline.

TechSmith techs ==> I would like to see a checkbox in the Options that lets you toggle the default on/off for adding a new track feature when you are recording screen captures. I can't think of a scenario where I would want a new track for EVERY screen capture I do, but maybe it's useful to somebody. The workflow seems like it was designed for a presenter who would need multiple layers (quiz, screen capture, & PIP), rather than an editor who depends on a streamlined process for speedy editing.

I've been a camtasia 7 user for more than a year and upgraded to camtasia 8. I an very frustrated with the tracks getting added for every new piece of media i add (audio or video). I have a small laptop screen when i'm in some offices recording. I need to see the video i'm narrating but with all these unnecessary tracks stacked below it - I can't see what i'm doing and spend more time trying to drag media to the lower tracks. Also, I can't always seem to grab them on a click, there is a delay. Is there a plan to fix this? I may ask for a refund and go back to camtasia 7.

Potential workflow suggestion for Andrea and others making multiple clips.

Sounds like you are creating a clip, wanting to save it and go on to create the next one, then the next one and so on, yes? Instead of clicking Save & Edit, select the little down arrow under it for Save As, give it a name and get right back to recording.

This presumes you'd be importing all these clips to the timeline for a main editing session later. That's the way I actually work and I was shown that I needlessly went to the editing screen multiple times before I needed to, stacking up clips in multiple tracks like cord wood!

Now that I use Save As after each clip instead of the Save & Edit option, my workflow is improved and time per clip handling decreased. Try it!

As I've said elsewhere, CS 8.0 (IMHO) offers too much to go backwards.

Hello Timbre4, thank you for your suggestions. It's different than you describe. I am using the Voice Narration tool, I record all the video, then add the narration. In this tool when I click 'stop recording', it prompts for 'Save Narration As' box appears, when I type a file name I can click save, it will create a new track instead or sometimes position the audio on any track at the play head (as long as nothing is there). It almost seems inconsistent. Maybe there is a way to label a track 'audio' then all my audio tracks can go there? Or do you have any other suggestions?

I installed 8.1.2 and when I try the Save As option on the screen recorder, my clips are not added to the clip bin. I have to manually copy them over from my system folder to Camtasia. Has anyone else seen this issue?

pumpkin - That is a completely different matter. The moderator should move to a new question IMHO.

If you are saving a camrec or AVI file, it is usually to the default Camtasia folders under Programs. Once you save it from the Screen Recorder , Camtasia usually asks if you want to shoot more or edit your clip. If you select Edit, then it opens a project view with your clip in the bin and on the timeline.

If you are opening a project file for the first time separately, you cannot expect the file to be in the Clip Bin until you browse for it and add it to the clip bin, then save the project while it's there.

Sorry Timbre4, but you misunderstood my question. I was testing the workaround suggested above. Unfortunately i missed the part that says the clips are not added to the Clip Bin.

The only workaround I have on this for now is to capture all the clips before doing any editing. After each one, instead of choosing "Save and Edit", you could click the drop-down arrow and choose "Save As...". This will not put the video on the timeline. Unfortunately, it does not automatically put it into the Clip Bin either - but you could import them all at once after recording the lot.

So I am in full agreement with others on this thread--this issue is BIG. I have to decide whether the upgrade from 7 to 8 is worth the expense and time to train my team (15 or so). We do not use Camtasia on a daily basis so any change in the workflow is even more difficult to adjust to. I thought we were ready to bite the bullet and upgrade, but I think we will hold off until this issue is fixed. We don't need any of the new features enough to justify the headaches.

You're right. This one issue is not that big by itself. However, the whole tracks concept is new so we have to relearn that. When it behaves differently than we expect (stacking clips rather than adding them to the end), that makes it harder to adjust. For myself, I could make the switch pretty easily but most of my team does not use Cam regularly so it will be a tough transition for them to learn the new workflow and new features.

I will get other members of my team to test this and see if they think it is as clunky as I do.

Is it possible to stop new clips from being added to track 2? I've tried locking the track but that just causes new clips to be written to track 3. I want to work with a single track and just insert the newly recorded snippets wherever the placeholder arrow is. I'm also having problems inserting clips from track 2 back into track 1. I create the space on track one (ya know, use the insert space capability) but I often times can't cut and paste the clip placed on track 2 (or what sometimes looks like the clip has a portion on track 2 and track 3) back to the newly inserted space on track 1.

This seems like such an obvious simplistic workflow but I can't figure out how to do it. This tool is incredibly frustrating to use.

Bumping this since I have been frustrated about the "stacking" clip issue since I upgraded to 8 when it was first introduced. If you're going to change workflow like this, at least give us the option to go back to the way it was if it causes aggravation!

Same here, Jill. I have stopped using Camtasia 8 to record my audio, and now use Adobe Audition to record my audio separately instead. This obviously isn't an ideal workflow for those who wish to record demonstrations, speaking while demonstrating onscreen simultaneously. However, this workflow works for me since I am simply syncing audio files from Audition to individual PowerPoint images.

Bump.I would love to hear from Techsmith about this issue and why it's taking so long to fix it.Because let's face it: the erratic behaviour clearly leads to this being a bug. As said before, who would want the new clip to be inserted randomly on a new track?

Kayakman's suggestion above is actually very helpful - you can add a bunch of clips to a single track by selecting them and pulling them down to the track where you want them. Of course, this means you have to re-name the first nine tracks so they automatically arrange themselves in order (since Camtasia seems to think that "capture-11" comes between "capture-1" and "capture-2" - the workaround is to name all single-digit clips with a leading 0 - e.g. "capture-01").

I keep nine fake clips in each recording folder, named capture-1 ... -9; so the recorder begins with 10 and till 99 the clips are 'correctly' numbered. And when I import the clips (from n. 10 obviously) in the bin I don't have to pay attention to order them onto the track. Not perfect but I find this a little improvement ;)